New students discuss what they’re most excited about this upcoming semester, followed by a speech from President Bolton.
Transcript:
0:07: Welcome back to Chronversations.
0:09: I’m your host, Levi Libson.
0:14: For those students new to Columbia College Chicago, welcome.
0:17: And to those who are just returning after a well-deserved break, time to tune back in.
0:22: Today, Friday, the September 4th, is new student convocation.
0:25: With the start of nearly everything new, there are always conflicted feelings about what’s to come.
0:30: On today’s episode, we are speaking with new students to get a better understanding of what’s going through their heads.
0:36: My name is Gavin Willis.
0:37: My pronouns are he/him, and my major is audio arts.
0:42: Hi, my name is Miley Sherwood.
0:44: I am she/her.
0:44: I’m a freshman this year.
0:46: My major is acting for stage and screen, but I’m also minoring in radio, and, yeah.
0:53: My name is Landon Blanck.
0:54: My pronouns are he/him.
0:55: I’m a musical theater major.
0:58: I’ve been doing theater for basically my whole life and I’ve just really been.
1:02: Into singing and acting and performing and telling a story specifically on stage.
1:08: If there was one thing that you would want to accomplish in your time here at Columbia, what would it be?
1:12: Trying to connect with people to help me further my career and future since everybody is kind of intertwined with all the different communities, all the professors.
1:25: So I’m hoping that I can connect with someone.
1:29: In the field and try to further my knowledge so I can be able to get out there and do what I can do best
1:38: To network and I think that Columbia is a perfect place for that, you know, I want to be able to, you know, make connections with people in so many different forms of industry because we’re all here to make.
1:47: One piece of art and it takes so many different types of people to do that and I think networking is something that I definitely want to accomplish while here at Columbia.
1:55: Yeah, absolutely.
1:56: I mean, I don’t know how much you know about it.
1:57: We do a lot of like study abroad programs too.
1:59: Those are amazing for networking.
2:01: Have you considered any of those?
2:02: Absolutely, I would give anything to go back to Europe.
2:06: And a lot of them are from what I’ve seen super, super influential on what path a person takes in their education or career, even.
2:15: I don’t know.
2:18: Just, get to know people and be involved and have fun. I think are like the main things right now.
2:25: So yeah, I guess that’s that.
2:28: Are you from Chicago?
2:29: No, metro Detroit area.
2:32: Have you, how have you been liking the city?
2:35: It’s good.
2:36: I mean, I was a little nervous at first, but I think I’m kind of warming up to it, so
2:41: Chicago is very loud.
2:43: Chicago is really big, but the food’s good.
2:46: No, I’m from Minnesota.
2:47: You know, it hasn’t been crazy, because like I’m from the suburbs of Minnesota, so like around the Twin Cities.
2:57: Chicago sometimes to me just feels like a bigger Minneapolis.
3:01: So like I don’t know, I feel fine and I’ve visited here, you know, plenty of times while, you know, choosing the school.
3:08: So I don’t know, I love it personally.
3:12: I love being able to, you know, walk everywhere.
3:13: I love being able to take the train everywhere and I’m just really looking forward to being in the city.
3:17: What clubs have interested you so far?
3:20: So actually when I first like applied to Columbia, I thought I would have to give up my opportunity to play sports, which I play a lot of sports, and walking around here today, I was able to see that we actually do have a lot of sports opportunities like basketball and volleyball and soccer and all of these different things, but I also think that some of the audio aspects of clubs here are really cool as well.
3:40: There’s so many different ones.
3:42: I was just going to go look at some of the clubs.
3:45: I’m really particularly excited for a D&D club.
3:49: I want to look into that because I love Dungeons & Dragons, and I feel like it would be a great way to make friends with people.
3:53: So if you had a message for yourself in four years from now, what would it be?
3:58: Right now?
3:58: I feel like just, be open to a lot of things and try new things.
4:04: I don’t know, be comfortable where you are and just be, just be outgoing.
4:08: I would say, I heard a lot today about being a multifaceted creator, and being someone who can do multiple things, even if, like, you know, it doesn’t matter how much you take on or how ambitious people say it is.
4:25: So I think I would say something along the lines of that to my future self and just be like to just keep doing the things that.
4:34: Want you to keep going, you know, keep doing the things that you want you to keep creating, I think is the main thing.
4:39: You shouldn’t have sat in the corner and waited for people to come talk to you.
4:44: Like, go out there, get out there.
4:46: Make the most of your time here.
4:48: At the start of convocation, our own President Bolton gave an important speech which perfectly plays into the conversation today’s podcast explored.
4:55: How throwing yourself into a new city, new school, and new experience overall can feel tough, but often will yield great results.
5:03: We’re gonna ask you to collaborate with others who think differently than you do.
5:08: And you’re gonna get some feedback, some that you don’t like and something you’re going to produce is likely to fail.
5:17: You may even have a moment when you wonder, am I good enough to be here?
5:23: And when that moment comes, I want you to remember this.
5:28: Growth rarely happens inside the boundaries of what already feels comfortable.
5:35: Your job here is not to arrive already knowing exactly who you are.
5:40: Your job is to discover who you can become.
5:46: Make sure to stay up to date with campus and Metro news at Columbia Chronicle.com.
5:50: I’m Levi Libson.
5:51: Thanks for listening.
Copy edited by Antonio Chaves
